The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-10-08
THE UNMARRIED GIRLS.
Striking Facts Cleaned from New z
gland Lady's Statistical Report

gland Lady's Statistical Report
A Boston newspaper writer recently
met in New England town woman
who had kept for a number of years a
record of the girls graduated from the
high school of the village, and their
lives after leaving school. The INST
striking fact in this record was the
growing number of those who remained
unmarried. Eleven years have elapsed |
since the last of the classes was gradu-
ated. and it is fair, therefore, to assume
that their lives are well marked out by
this time. The first class recorded had
10 members. 10 of whom are unmarried;
in the second, 10 out of 10 are unmar-
ried; in the third, Is out of q, and SO
on. Out of a total of SO graduates
81 are still single, q are married,
and IL. it is of some interest to add
are dead of consumption, prey
to the bitter winds of the New En-
gland winter OF the 81 unmarried
graduates, q are school-teachers, are
type-setters, l is proof-reader, i
head dressmaker in dry goods house,
are dressmakers, music-teachers, |
has studied medicine and Is work il
shoe-shops. Only II, or hardly one
fifth of the whole number, are classe<
as 'stay -at-homes. - These evidentA,
did not need to work for living, anii
it is fair to assume that good proper
ton, at least, had home duties which
would take the place for them of a
more active career outside
Statistics of this kind are usually re-
ceived with an air that implies commits
Grafton for so many young women who
have failed to find husbands. But is it
not true that the old theory that mar
riage is indispensable to a woman,
while it is perhaps only desirable FOR a
man, is losing some of its force? We
are inclined to believe that these
figures, and many like them which
could no doubt be had for the trying,
prove it. Marriage is, of course, the
natural state of both sexes, and
SO long as woman is the "weaker
vessel" and so long as the
affections are the dominating force
of her character-that is to say,
so long as men and women exist-mar-
riage will seem more desirable to
women, taking the general average of
| mankind, than to men. But the signs
of the times are lost on those who do
not see that women are gaining day by
day a broader ard firmer foothold of
their own, and independent of men, in
modern life. 1t is no longer universally
conceded, as it was once, that a
woman's career necessarily begins
and ends in the home. Women
are pushing themselves into a great
number of trades and occupations
where their presence would not have
been tolerated a generation ago. This
is perhaps more strikingly true in En-
gland than here. A table published
some years ago of the number of
women in England following occupa-
tons of light and agreeable kind,
such as post-office clerks and the like
made surprising showing. The New
England list given above is another in
stance in point. Four-hfths of thes,
girls are engaged in active and usefu
careers. No such proportion, we ven
ture to say, would have been seen il
that section twenty-five years ago.
It would be a mistake to ascribe al
this to the pressure of necessity
Women are seeking occupations more
and more because there is CROWN!
feeling of dissatisfaction among thu
sex with the inert and dependent att
tude too often assigned to them in the
economy of life. They are forcing theil
way into the colleges, studying pro
LESSONS, competing with men in NAM
occupations where their greater quick
ness and readiness give them the adj
vantage, not because they feel, in each
case, the need of making living, bu
often for the same reasons that men dc
because they want a career, the con
sciousness of self-reliance and indie
pendence. 1t is not an unusual thin!
for such women to marry. sometime.
abandoning their occupations, some
times continuing them. But, howeve
this may be, De movement is one to
ward a truer equality OF the sexes. =
NJ Y Tribune.
Poison in Syphons.
| The Bohemian health officials hav